Former Councilmember Jim Pitts has gotten the message. Sort of. The team that proposed a bland, four-story Wingate Inn for Waterfront Village have retained a Florida-based architectural firm to redesign the project. Specialty Restaurants proposal for a four-story, 100 room Wingate Inn was selected over a competing plan by Ciminelli Cos. for a ten-story building with a 135 room Hilton Garden Inn, 80,000 sq.ft. of office space, ground floor retail and 76 interior parking spaces. The current Council President, previously vowing to block the Wingate proposal, isn’t convinced.
Business First has this gem from Pitts:
Both Speciality Restaurants, the California-based owners of Shanghai Red’s and developer James Pitts — the former Buffalo Common Council president — have pledged to redesign their proposed four-story, $10 million Wingate Inn hotel to make it more appealing to local interests. They hope the redesign will break the logjam that has stalled their project.
“We want to build something that will help Buffalo, not hurt it,” Pitts said.
Franczyk is skeptical:
To gain Common Council approval, it is likely Speciality Restaurants/Pitts will need a super-majority vote — which translates to six of the nine elected officials approving the project. There is already a council bloc of at least four, and possibly, six who either have reservations or are likely to vote against the proposal.
“It doesn’t contain the totality of the Ciminelli project,” said David Franczyk, Fillmore District and Common Council president. “They are only changing the envelope of the project’s aesthetics, presumably.”
Miami-based Zyscovich Architects has been hired to redesign the hotel. The architecture firm previously worked with Centerstone Development on a reuse plan for the vacant AM&As store downtown. Centerstone did not proceed with the promising project.
Zyscovich Architects’ design for AM&As store conversion.